Sitting on my couch with my newborn in my shirt (sleeping for the first time in like 7 hours, omg thank god lol) and on my laptop for a little solid hb time for the first time in a week! Seems like I should share her birth story (SUPER long-- scroll to bottom for cute pics)

So after preparing for a med-free birth with midwives I ended up having the most medicalized birth ever. After weeks of trying to get labor going via walking, yoga ball, etc I found myself at 41+1 and still no baby. I was scheduled for an u/s and NST to check on baby and make sure she was okay to wait for 42 weeks to induce. All through my pregnancy I'd been super healthy and never had an issue/scare, so I wasn't concerned about the tests.

U/s was up first and LO looked great but unfortunately my bp was high (for the first time!) and they sent me to LD for evaluation to see if I had pre-e. Midwife came in and told me that regardless of whether I had pre-e, or what the cause of my high bp, at over 41 weeks pregnant they were not comfortable letting me stay pregnant any longer so I needed to be induced. (Test results ended up coming back no pre-e).

So, induction started at 10:30am with a dose of cervidil. I was only "almost 1cm" and 50% effaced at that point. I started having regular, but mild, contractions about 5 minutes apart by noon. At 2:30 they gave me my second dose of cervidil and I was disappointed that I was a 1-2 and 80% effaced. They said if this dose of cervidil could get me to a solid 2 then we could do a foley bulb.

Right around this time my parents got there and by 3pm I was starting to have some solid painful contractions. Still 5 minutes apart but harder to talk through. Unfortunately, because of the induction and my bp, I had to be on constant monitoring for bp and baby's heart rate, so I was strapped to the bed on my back and basically couldn't move. Every time I tried to change positions in bed they'd lose baby's heart rate and have to come in and strap me in again. So I was super disappointed to not be able to walk, stand, bounce on the yoga ball, or labor in the shower/labor tub as planned.

Around 4:30pm I got up to go to the bathroom (the only time they'd unhook me for a minute!) and when I came back and sat in bed I felt a gush. Not huge but enough to know my water had broken. I told the nurse and she told me it was probably just my bloody show. I told her I was pretty sure it was not because there was way too much goo coming out of me, and she said I'd be surprised how much there could be (I sort of hated this woman btw).

Almost immediately after this things got REAL. I started having contractions for 1 minute every 2 minutes and they were so bad I couldn't talk through them, couldn't think through them, and was writhing around in bed. Also, they moved from being in both my abdomen and back to almost entirely in my back.

So when I'm in excruciating pain for 1 of every 2 min and unable to get out of bed and the nurse tells me that my bp is rising because of the pain I basically threw all my med-free plans out the window and asked for the epi right then. Anesthesiologist was in within 10 minutes and had the epi in maybe 10-15 min later at 6:30pm. And it was awesome. It did basically kill my legs but I wasn't allowed out of bed anyways so I didn't care. Also when I got up to sit for the epi they saw my water HAD broken, and there was meconium in it. Sigh.

At 7pm the midwife came in and said I was 2cm (omg seriously that's it??) and she inserted a foley bulb to try to dilate me to 4cm. By 8:30pm the bulb fell out and I was at 4cm. They started the pitocin at that point and by 10:30pm I'd advanced all the way to 8cm. We all started thinking we might have this baby out of me before midnight! I was instructed to let them know if I had the urge to push (I was still feeling pressure during contractions, just not pain) but that never came.

At 12:30am I was checked and told I was only a 7. The front part of my cervix had started to swell because of baby's position, which they now thought might be posterior. They started talking c-section at this point but the OB on call gave her blessing to up my pitocin and start rolling me back and forth basically to try to get baby to turn and take pressure off my cervix.

The next few hours sucked. I got the shakes really bad and threw up. I was feeling really out of it and exhausted and scared. By 3:30am I was still at 7, still swelling, I had spiked a fever and LO's heart rate was erratic. So I was told an emergency c-section was basically THE option at this point. I was freaked out but just wanted LO here safely so I said fine.

Wheeled me in for c-section at 4am, was a bit freaked out by the fact that I could still move my toes and yet they are cutting into me (but I could not feel that luckily hah). LO born at 4:33am, wailing!! They had to take her to check her out right away due to the meconium and heart rate issues, but she checked out a-okay and they gave her to my husband! Who was a blubbering mess by the way-- the first time I've ever seen him cry.

Oh, and she WAS sunny side up, and tilted, and the surgeon said she was basically not going to come out without a c-section regardless!

I was in recovery by 5:15am with Fiona June on my chest! And she is just perfect. My recovery from c-section also has not been as bad as I'd have thought. I was up out of bed walking around by 6pm that day, and I haven't taken anything for the pain other than the initial iv pain killer and motrin and tylenol. We ended up having to stay at the hospital for 3 more nights due to the c-section, but it was sort of a blessing because Fiona became jaundiced on day 2 and we needed to keep an eye on her anyways. Plus we had a lot of latch issues the first 2 days and having the on staff LCs on call was amazing.

So-- if you made it this far--- that's how this med-free-hoping mama ended up with every possible medical intervention but it was all actually okay because Fiona is here and healthy and I'm just fine... so honestly who cares in the end.

And now for the good stuff... pics!! (next post bc they are all on my phone...)